This application is based on applications Nos. 86219/1997 and 89280/1997 filed in Japan, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method in which ink is supplied to an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrying member, to form an ink image on the image carrying member, and the ink image is transferred to a recording medium, to form an image on the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a copying machine, a printer, and so on utilizing an electrophotographic system have been used as an image forming apparatus. In such an image forming apparatus, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of an image carrying member, and the electrostatic latent image is developed, and is then transferred to a recording medium such as paper, to form an image on the recording medium.
Known as one of such an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is one using a liquid developer obtained by dispersing colored resin particles (toner particles) in a carrier liquid in order to develop an electrostatic latent image, as disclosed in JP-A-7-271107.
The liquid developer used in the electrophotographic apparatus is generally one obtained by dispersing charged toner particles in an insulating carrier liquid. The toner particles are selectively consumed from the liquid developer as an image is formed. When the liquid developer is thus used, therefore, the density of the toner particles in the carrier liquid must be managed. The management is troublesome. Further, a large part of the carrier liquid is repeatedly used, so that the liquid developer is liable to be degraded.
Furthermore, in the electrophotographic apparatus using the liquid developer, when the image is formed on a recording medium such as copying paper, a fixing device for fixing a toner image transferred onto the recording medium, for example, is required. Therefore, the apparatus is complicated and is increased in size, for example.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus so constructed that an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of an image carrying member, ink held in an ink carrying member is brought into contact with the surface of the image carrying member having the electrostatic latent image thus formed thereon, the ink is made to adhere to a portion of the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrying member, to form an ink image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image carrying member, and the ink image is transferred onto a recording medium such as paper, an OHP sheet, or the like from the surface of the image carrying member, to form an image has been proposed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,599.
In the image forming apparatus, however, there are some problems. For example, the ink does not sufficiently adhere on the portion of the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrying member, so that the density of the formed image is decreased, and voids are created in the formed image. Contrary to this, the ink also adheres to a portion having no electrostatic latent image formed thereon in the image carrying member, so that the formed image is fogged.